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An upper limit to interstellar 244Pu abundance as deduced from radiochemical search in deep-sea sediment: An account

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Abstract

We report here a search for the “live” 244Pu in 1 kg deep-sea dry sediment collected in 1992 in the North Pacific. After a 546 day alpha-counting of a Pu fraction chemically separated from the alkaline-fused sediment sample at Kanazawa University, AMS analysis was performed at Hebrew University and Weizmann Institute. Only one count of 244Pu with no background ions was detected, indicating no excess over the expected stratospheric man-made fallout. A limit of 0.2 atoms of 244Pu cm−2·y−1 for extra terrestrial deposition was set under reasonable assumptions and it was then concluded from this result and the available data on interstellar medium (ISM) that the abundance of 244Pu in the ISM is less than 2·10−11 g 244Pu (g·ISM)−1. Implications of the present result are discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Racah Institute of Physics, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 91904, Israel

    M. Paul, A. Valenta, S. Ghelberg, A. Hershkowitz & S. Jiang

  2. Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Ill., 60439, USA

    I. Ahmad

  3. Soreq NRC, Yavne, 81800, Israel

    D. Berkovits

  4. Particle Physics Department, Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, 76100, Israel

    C. Bordeanu

  5. Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Kanazawa University, Kakuma-machi, Kanazawa, 920-1192, Japan

    Y. Hashimoto, T. Nakanishi & K. Sakamoto

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  1. M. Paul
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  2. A. Valenta
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  3. I. Ahmad
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  4. D. Berkovits
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  5. C. Bordeanu
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  6. S. Ghelberg
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  10. T. Nakanishi
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  11. K. Sakamoto
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Paul, M., Valenta, A., Ahmad, I. et al. An upper limit to interstellar 244Pu abundance as deduced from radiochemical search in deep-sea sediment: An account. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 272, 243–245 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-007-0508-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-007-0508-3

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